artist – Jorna Newberry

artist profile

community – Pitjantjatjara

title:  Perentie Dreaming

dimensions: 183 x 122cm
medium: Acrylic on linen

stretched: no

location: Sydney gallery

about this painting:

Jorna Newberry was a Pitjantjatjara woman who was born c.1959 at Angus Downs (and sadly passed far too young in 2025). Jorna was a bush baby and spent her childhood living the traditional lifestyle of hunting and gathering.  Jorna commenced painting in the mid 1990s.  Her paintings refer to her country and are associated with significant traditional places of spiritual knowledge and the ancestral stories, which are imbedded in the land.

Jorna is most famous for her representation of the Perentie lizard, which she paints in exquisite detail. The reptile is the fourth largest lizard on earth and important in Aboriginal culture in both a totemic way and as an important food source. Her paintings depict the circular patterning and intricate dotting on the back of the lizard. The swirling designs also represent the tracks of the animals and the contours of the landscape.

Tommy Watson, one of the country’s greatest Indigenous artists, was Jorna Newberry’s uncle and he was instrumental in teaching Jorna how to paint and, most importantly, how to maintain the secrecy of cultural matters. Jorna Newberry, like Watson, will not disclose some information about her paintings.